A Film A Day: October 2017

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017)

When I first saw The Meyerowitz Stories on Netflix, I decided I would pass it because of Adam Sandler. He's always so annoying and his movies are always so stupid, I didn't want to waste time watching it. Then Kevin over Speaks in Movie Lines spoke highly of it (and Sandler's performance) so I absolutely had to check it out. And I'm glad I did because it was a real joy to watch.

It tells the stories of three estranged siblings, Danny (Adam Sandler), Jean (Elizabeth Marvel) and Matt (Ben Stiller), that reunite when their bitter ageing father (Dustin Hoffmann) gets hospitalized and try to figure out how to step out from their father's shadow and live their own lives.

There was a time when I was a horror junkie and Saw was one of my favourite movies. I'm not a horror junkie anymore, but Saw is easily one of my favourite horrors for the simple reason that is more complex than most horrors.

Two strangers, Larry (Cary Elwes) and Adam (Leigh Whannell), wake up at the opposite sides of a dirty bathroom having no idea of how they got there or why. Later on, clues hidden around the room suggest that this might be the work of the jigsaw killer, a sick individual who engages his victims in deadly games. So locked in the room, Larry and Adam must trust each other and work together to get out.

Forgettable. That's the first word that comes to my mind when I think of Shrek the Third because I've seen this film several times and yet I barely remembered a thing about before rewatching it.

In this one, the king (John Cleese) of Far Far Away and father of Fiona (Cameron Diaz) dies and Shrek (Mike Myers) becomes the successor of the throne. But he doesn't feel like the right guy for the job so he decides to find Arthur (Justin Timberlake), the only remaining heir aside from him. But while Shrek, Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) are away, Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) comes back with an army of evil fairy tale creatures and attempts to take over.

I'm starting to question my sanity. I mean, there has to be something wrong with me if I decide to watch a horror comedy called Attack of the Killer Donuts. At least I wasn't expecting it to be scary which means I was not disappointed.

There isn't a lot to say about this film's plot as the title says it all. Due to some circumstances (a chemical accident, to be honest), donuts become animated, they grow teeth and start killing people. And it's up to Johnny (Justin Ray), Michelle (Kayla Compton) and Howard (Ben Heyman), to save their town.

I'm a sucker for Marvel and I'd watch anything they make. Those terrible movies with Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garden and whoever played the Punisher are the proof. What I'm trying to say is that's pretty obvious I was excited for Thor: Ragnarok. However, this time there wasn't just the fact that it's an MCU flick, but especially the fact that Taika Waititi directed it. Last year, he left me speechless, in a very good way, with Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and that's the real reason why I was really looking forward to seeing this. And once again he left me speechless. This indeed is the most entertaining, exciting and fun Marvel film since Deadpool.

I've said this many and many times before, I don't like romantic films. And yet I decided to watch this one whose title literally means love in French. Of course, I knew absolutely nothing about it (not even that it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Picture in 2013. Yeah, I know, shame on me) and I so found myself watching one of the most powerful, touching and heartbreaking films about love.

Amour tells the story of Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) and Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a couple of retired musicians enjoying life in their eighties. One day Anne has a stroke leading to her being half paralyzed and Georges has to take care of his wife while their daughter Eva (Isabelle Huppert) believes he is unable to take care of Anne and believe he should put her in a hospital. Eventually, Goerges will be forced to make a tragic decision.

Wow, I can't believe it's already the last Thursday of October. Time really flies away. Anyway, since it's the last Thursday of the month and it's October, the TMP, the weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves (if you still don't know what it is, shame on you!) has a double theme, Halloween and Television, and this time we have to pick three horror series. Not my favourite genre, but I watch so many, it was easy to pick three more or less great shows.

It's almost that time of the year again, when kids dress up for Trick-or-treat, eat too much candy and get sick, and I spend/waste my time watching cheap horror movies like Tales of Halloween.

It is a comedy horror anthology of ten stories directed by more than 10 different directors and they go as follows: Sweet Tooth, a kid kills his babysitter and her boyfriend because they ate his candy. The Night Billy Raised Hell, a kid dressed like a devil throw an egg at the house of a man who is the devil and teaches the boy a lesson. Trick, A group of friends are terrorised by a group of kids. The Weak and the Wicked, a teenager takes revenge on his bullies. Grim Grinning Ghost, a woman is haunted by a ghost. Ding Dong, a man learns that his wife is a witch eating kids and tries to stop her. This Means War, a man battles his neighbour to death for the best Halloween decorations. Friday the 31st, a serial killer confronts an alien. The Ransom of Rusty Rex, two men kidnap the kid of a rich man only to discover that the child is a monster. Bad Seed, a detective hunts down a man-eating pumpkin.

I've mentioned this several times before but I'm going to say it again, I love food. I watch a lot (probably too many) culinary shows and one of my biggest dreams is to have dinner at a starred restaurant. That's why I finally decided to watch Burnt, a film far from being perfect but that, in my opinion, deserves more attention.

This film is about Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper), a two-star Michelin chef who has destroyed his career with drugs and a terrible behaviour and is now determined to redeem himself. That's why he takes over the restaurant owned by Tony (Daniel Bruhl), an old friend of his, and, with the help of two other old friends, Michel (Omar Sy) and Max (Riccardo Scamarcio), and Helene (Sienna Miller), a talented sous-chef, pursues his third star.

Remember last week when I had plenty of hope for Cult of Chucky? Well, turns out I was right to put my trust in Don Mancini because this seventh instalment of the franchise isn't terrible. And it's way better than Muschieetti's It.

It's stupid right from the beginning as it opens with Andy (Alex Vincent), the kid from the original film, going on a date doomed to fail because the woman googled him and knows everything about his past. Anyway, Andy goes back home and guess who's waiting for him? Chucky (Brad Dourif). Actually, Chucky's head, half destroyed because Andy finds incredible pleasure in torturing him. Then it shifts focus on Nica (Fiona Dourif), who is now in an asylum for killing her family. But she doesn't find peace in the asylum either as several good guy dolls make their appearance. And they all are somehow possessed by Chucky whose goal is to terrorize Nica. And then Andy comes back to stop Chucky but first he has to deal with Chucky's wife, Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) who is helping her husband to get his revenge.

Like I told you last week, Shrek was one of my favourite films when I was a kid because it was fun and made fun of fairy tales. It's pretty much the same with Shrek 2. And I don't know how people feel about this one, but for me it's one of those times the sequel is better than the original.

Picking up when the first film left, Shrek (Mike Myers) and Fiona (Cameron Diaz) are now happily married and live in his swamp with the annoying Donkey (Eddie Murphy) who is having some marital problems with the dragon. But then a letter from Fiona's parents (John Cleese and Julie Andrews) arrives, inviting them to dinner to celebrate her marriage which brings a lot of unhappiness in their lives because, as if Shrek and Fiona's father not getting along wasn't enough, Prince Charming (Rupert Everett), the guy who was supposed to marry Fiona, returns from a failed attempt at rescuing her and works alongside his mother, the Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders), to separate Shrek and Fiona.

Many years ago, I was zapping when I stumbled upon The Men Who Stare at Goats. I switched channel as soon as I realised George Clooney was in it (I couldn't stand him at the time). The weird title though got stuck in my head and, given that there's Kevin Spacey in it, I decided to watch it. Well, while I would have loved more Spacey, I found the film quite funny. Not smart funny though, but stupid funny. And now you'll understand why.

After the failure of his marriage, reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) goes on the job to Iraq to prove his ex-wife he is a real man and while trying to figure out how to get there, he meets by chance Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a retired US Army operator who was part of a special unit, the Jedi Warriors, trained men able to walk through walls, read the enemy's mind, and stop the heart of goats only staring at them. Wilton decides to join Cassady hoping for a greater story and finds himself in tons of difficult situations but he also learns a lot about Cassady's past (it's told through flashbacks and it's easily the funniest and more interesting part of the story), and he finally has the chance to act like a man.

I'd be lying if I said It was one of my most anticipated films of the year. It just wasn't. I guess it's because I never saw the 1990s mini-series and I find clowns pretty stupid. Also, I didn't read Stephen King's novel up until recently. Reading that great book, however, made me interested in seeing it, especially when all the people I (virtually) know were saying what a great movie it was. That of course created some expectations Andy Muschietti's film wasn't able to meet, and instead of being happy and frightened, I left the movie theatre pretty unhappy and bored.

Rocco and His Brothers (Italian: Rocco e i suoi fratelli) is another of those movies I've been meaning to watch forever but I've always put off for two reasons, its length and its director, Luchino Visconti (long story short, he ruined my favourite book, Mann's Death in Venice). But it is such a classic, I finally put my feelings aside and gave it a chance. I'm glad I did so because this film was fantastic.

It's about the Parondis, a poor family from southern Italy formed by a widow (Katina Paxinou) and her five sons who moves to Milan hoping to have a better life. Living there isn't very easy at the beginning, but then everyone finds something to do and they seem happy. But then a prostitute (Annie Girardot) steps in and comes between Simone (Renato Salvatori) and Rocco (Alain Delon), bringing discord in the family.

Welcome to another Halloween themed Thursday Movie Picks, the weekly series hosted by Wandering through the Shelves. This week we have to picks body horror movies. It was pretty tough for me because I haven't seen many films fitting but I gave it a shot anyway.

Alien (1979)

Ripley and the crew of the Nostromo are attacked by a mysterious life form that eventually grows into a huge monster. At some point a baby alien bursts from the chest of one of the characters killing him. One of the best sci-fi films ever made and still the best of the franchise.

The Fly (1986)

A brilliant and eccentric scientist is working on teleportation and right when he thinks he's got all figured out, his experiment goes horribly wrong and he transforms into a man/fly hybrid. I loved this movie when I was a kid (I still can't believe my mother let me watch Cronenberg) and I love it even more now because I can really appreciate the genius behind it.

The Skin I Live In (2011)

A doctor is trying to create a type of synthetic skin that can't be damaged and his guinea pig is a mysterious woman locked in his house. I'm sorry but you have to see this for the body horror. I won't spoil it. Anyway, this is one of the most disturbing, unsettling and yet beautiful films I've seen.

Dracula Untold (2014)

Ever since I was a kid, Dracula was the definition of vampire. He also meant vampires are evil. That's why I was somehow interested in seeing Dracula Untold because instead of doing yet another Dracula film, Gary Shore was going on a different road, the origin story.

And that's what we got. It's the 13th Century and a young prince, Vlad (Luke Evans), is living peacefully with his family while ruling the Transylvania. One day though, a group of Turkish soldiers comes to his castle to collect the taxes with one awful news, their Sultan (Dominic Cooper) is demanding a thousand boys to create an army. Vlad refuses to do because his son (Art Parkinson) would be one of the boys; he instead goes meet a vampire (Charles Dance) on the mountains to obtain the power to protect his family and kingdom.

I go into movies completely blind most of the time. Sometimes it's the poster that makes me decide to watch a film. Other times it's because an actor/actress I like is in it. But most of the time I have no idea what the film is about and I like it that way - which is why I found Kumail telling Emily the plot of a film before they watched it quite annoying. My point is, if I knew The Big Sick was a romantic movie, I probably would have never watched it because they are not my thing. But you know what? That thing I mentioned above was the only thing that annoyed me about this incredibly well-crafted, beautiful and sweet film that succeeds in being a comedy, a drama and a romance.

After Seed of Chucky, directed by Don Mancini, just like this one, I was expecting the worst but Mancini was able to surprise me again. He left comedy to go back to the original trilogy’s dark tones, and it worked. Although it’s far from being the best horror or slasher movie, Curse of Chucky sure is a pretty entertaining one – and it kinda made me excited about Cult of Chucky.

The story is about Nica, a young woman in a wheelchair (Fiona Dourif, Brad Dourif’s real-life daughter) who is forced to deal with her sister (Danielle Bisutti), her brother-in-law (Brennan Elliott) and her niece (Summer H. Howell) after the mysterious death of her mother (Chantal Quesnel). The cause of death, however, isn’t a mystery to us since Nica and her mother received a package containing Chucky (Brad Dourif) not long before dying. What we don’t know is what score Chucky is trying to settle as he starts killing the members of the family.

Genres

Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Fantasy

Directors

Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson

Country

USA

Voice Cast

Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow, Vincent Cassel, Conrad Vernon, Chris Miller, Cody Cameron, Simon J. Smith, Christopher Knights, Aron Warner, Jim Cummings

Storyline

When Lord Farquaad (Vincent Cassel) exiles all the magical creatures to the woods, the fairy-tale beings decide to camp outside the house of ogre Shrek (Mike Myers) who loses his peaceful life. So, in order to get his land back, agrees to rescue Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) for Lord Farquaad.

Opinion

Flying over the fact that I haven't seen it in over 3 years (yeah, shame on me), Shrek has been one of my favourite animated films since always and has a special place in my heart not because it's fun, but because it makes fun of fairy tales.

The story would have been your typical fairy tale story with a princess that needs to be rescued if it wasn't for the fact that there is no Prince Charming here. The hero is a grumpy green ogre who only acts for self-interest; he's basically a mercenary hired to do a job. And the prince (actually he won't be a prince unless he marries a princess) is a coward and rather pathetic little man. This twist (and many others along the way) is what makes the story interesting and charming. It's got some plot holes and a weird romantic subplot, but it eventually delivers its don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover message.

The soul of the film, however, isn't the story but the characters. They are a bit stereotyped (I mean, the ugly evil ogre isn't that evil after all, the noble is evil, and the friend is all over the place), but they are amazing, especially Shrek who is incredibly grumpy but equally likeable and Donkey, Shrek's animal sidekick. Donkey is actually my favourite thing about the Shrek franchise and he'll always be one of my favourite movie characters because of the wonderful work of Eddie Murphy. He was the perfect cast for the role, and gave such a funny and sweet performance. It's impossible not to love Donkey.

Another awesome thing about Shrek is that the humour works on different levels. When I was a kid I was able to enjoy all the fairy-tale related jokes and references; now I can also enjoy a lot of one-liners, especially those from Murphy and Myers who does a really good job as Shrek.

The animation is also nice. There's a lot of attention to backgrounds, textures and details which make up for the goofy movements of some/most of the characters.

Géza Röhrig, Levente Molnár, Urs Rechn, Sándor Zsótér, Todd Charmont, Christian Harting, Kamil Dobrowolski, Attila Fritz, Tamás Polgár

Storyline

It follows two days in the life of Saul Auslander (Géza Röhrig), a Hungarian prisoner at Auschwitz who tries to save from the flames the body of a boy he takes for his son.

It's Thursday aka Thursday Movie Picks time. If you still don't know what it is, go over at Wandering Through the Shelves and find out. And while you are at it, check out what the others have picked for this week's theme, dolls.

Although I wanted to do something different at first, I ended up picking three movies starring Chucky, the murderdoll. Here they are

Child's Play (1988)

A serial killer transfers his soul into Chucky, a doll that a single mother gives to her son Andy, clueless of it being possessed. And soon the doll starts killing people. Okay, the story is pretty lame, but it's quite enjoyable, and the atmosphere is so creepy it'll keep you on the edge of your seat.

Bride of Chucky (1998)

Chucky is brought back to life by his old-time sweetheart, he then kills her and brings her back in the body of a doll so they can go kill people together. Yes, another pretty lame story. Probably even worse than the first one, but the great thing about this film is that it doesn't take itself seriously. It's not a scary film but it's fun.

Curse of Chucky (2013)

After the death of her mother, Nica has to deal with her annoying sister, her brother-in-law and her niece. But Chucky is in the house and family will be the least of her problems. This one was surprisingly good. There's suspense, gore, an interesting camera work and a pretty good performance from Fiona Dourif (Nica).

Margherita Buy, John Turturro, Giulia Lazzarini, Nanni Moretti, Beatrice Mancini, Stedano Abbati, Enrico Ianniello, Anna Bellato, Toni Laudadio

Storyline

Margherita (Margherita Buy) has to deal with the loss of her mother (Giulia Lazzarini) while directing a complex film set in the contemporary scenario of economic crisis.

Welcome back, or just welcome if you are new, to Thursday Movie Picks, the weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves that consists of picking three films to fit the week's theme.

It's October aka the horror-themed TMP month. Opening this year's horror feast are those movies where people go around killing other people while wearing a mask.

Friday the 13th Part III (1982)

A group of friends decides to go to Crystal Lake for their vacation. Little they know that Jason is living in a cabin nearby and them vacationing there allows him to continue his killing spree. I hated this film, it was dull and laughable. And it was so stupid. But Jason finally gets his hockey mask so it was worthy of a mention.

Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

An evil record producer steals both the girl and the music from a disfigured composer wearing a silver mask. He eventually makes a deal with the produced but the producer betrays him so he sets out to take revenge. This one is De Palma's and it's simply brilliant. It combines several operas beautifully and Paul Williams makes for a fantastic villain.

The Purge (2013)

It's that time of the year when all crimes are allowed, even murder, so the Sandins lock themselves inside the house and they keep going with their normal routine. Unfortunately for them, nothing goes as it was supposed to. Who's wearing the mask? The villains, led by a great Rhys Wakefield. The film isn't as good as it could have been (I liked the second better) but overall it was nice. And there's Ethan Hawke in this one.